not the body
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Even a common man can understand that after death a person is gone. Although the body is still there, a dead man's relatives lament that the person has gone away, for a common man sees the body but cannot see the soul. Yamaraja continued: O lamenters, you are all fools! The person named Suyajna, for whom you lament, is still lying before you and has not gone anywhere. Then what is the cause for your lamentation? Previously he heard you and replied to you, but now, not finding him, you are lamenting. This is contradictory behavior, for you have never actually seen the person within the body who heard you and replied. There is no need for your lamentation, for the body you have always seen is lying here.
(More...) This instruction by Yamaraja in the form of a boy is understandable even for a common man. A common man who considers the body the self is certainly comparable to an animal (yasyatma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhatuke. .. sa eva go-kharaḥ). But even a common man can understand that after death a person is gone. Although the body is still there, a dead man's relatives lament that the person has gone away, for a common man sees the body but cannot see the soul. As described in Bhagavad-gita, dehino 'smin yatha dehe: the soul, the proprietor of the body, is within. After death, when the breath within the nostrils has stopped, one can understand that the person within the body, who was hearing and replying, has now gone. Therefore, in effect, the common man concludes that actually the spirit soul was different from the body and has now gone away. Thus even a common man, coming to his senses, can know that the real person who was within the body and was hearing and replying was never seen. For that which was never seen, what is the need of lamentation?
(More...) Imported quote 13465 This verse describes how one can become liberated from material bondage. The first point is that one must know that the soul is different from his body. The soul is called dehi, or one who possesses the body, and the material body is called deha, or the embodiment of the soul. The body is changing at every moment, but the soul is fixed; therefore the soul is called kūtastham. The change of body is enacted by the reactions of the three modes of nature. One who has understood the fixed position of the soul should not be disturbed by the incoming and outgoing interactions of the modes of material nature in the form of happiness and distress. In Bhagavad-gita also Lord Krsna recommends that since happiness and distress come and go due to the interaction of the modes of nature on the body, one should not be disturbed by such external movements. Even though one is sometimes absorbed in such external movements, he has to learn to tolerate them. The living entity should be always indifferent to the action and reaction of the external body.
(More...) Lord Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita that the body made of the gross physical elements (earth, water, fire, air and sky) and the subtle elements (mind, intelligence and ego) is completely different from the soul proper. One should therefore not be disturbed by the action and reaction of these eight gross and subtle material elements. The practical process to attain this stage of indifference is to execute devotional service. Only one who constantly engages in devotional service twenty-four hours a day can be indifferent to the action and reaction of the external body. When a man is absorbed in a particular thought, he does not hear or see any external activities, even though they are enacted in his presence. Similarly, those who are fully absorbed in devotional service do not care what is going on with the external body. That status is called samadhi. One who is actually situated in samadhi is understood to be a first-class yogi.
(More...) Imported quote 13469 The question may be raised that if the living entity has to act as the superintendent of the activities of the bodily combination, then how can he be indifferent to the activities of the body? The answer is given here: these activities are completely different from the activities of the spirit soul of the living entity. A crude example can be given in this connection. A businessman riding in a motorcar sits in the car, supervises its running, and advises the driver. He knows how much gasoline is used up, and he knows everything about the car, but still he is apart from the car and is more concerned with his business. Even while riding in the car, he thinks of his business and his office. He has no connection with the car, although he is sitting there. As the businessman is always absorbed in thoughts of his business, so the living entity can be absorbed in thoughts of rendering loving service to the Lord. Then it will be possible to remain separate from the activities of the material body. This position of neutrality can be possible only for a devotee.
(More...) Imported quote 16317 The senses are different outlets for the activities of lust. Lust is reserved within the body, but it is given vent through the senses. Therefore, the senses are superior to the body as a whole. These outlets are not in use when there is superior consciousness, or Krsna consciousness. In Krsna consciousness the soul makes direct connection with the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore the bodily functions, as described here, ultimately end in the Supreme Soul. Bodily action means the functions of the senses, and stopping the senses means stopping all bodily actions. But since the mind is active, then, even though the body may be silent and at rest, the mind will act-as it does during dreaming. But, above the mind there is the determination of the intelligence, and above the intelligence is the soul proper. If, therefore, the soul is directly engaged with the Supreme, naturally all other subordinates, namely, the intelligence, mind and the senses, will be automatically engaged. In the Katha Upanisad there is a passage in which it is said that the objects of sense gratification are superior to the senses, and mind is superior to the sense objects. If, therefore, the mind is directly engaged in the service of the Lord constantly, then there is no chance of the senses becoming engaged in other ways. This mental attitude has already been explained. [2.59] If the mind is engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord, there is no chance of its being engaged in the lower propensities. In the Katha Upanisad the soul has been described as mahan, the great. Therefore the soul is above all-namely, the sense objects, the senses, the mind and the intelligence. Therefore, directly understanding the constitutional position of the soul is the solution of the whole problem.
(More...) Imported quote 16446 "My dear Lord, at present we are sufficiently aged, and instead of being falsely puffed up of our bodily strength, we are getting weaker, weaker, day by day, and it is known to everyone that this body is a breeding ground for all kinds of diseases. Naturally, at the present moment, we are no longer after sense gratification or such happiness derived through the accidency of this material body. We are no more interested in such false happiness. By Your grace, we have now come to the conclusion that hankering after such material happiness is exactly like searching water in the desert, captivated by mirage. We are no longer interested in resultant action of our pious activities, like performing great sacrifices to be elevated in the heavenly planet, because we have now understood that such elevation to the higher standard of life in heavenly planets are simply very much relishable to hear, but actually there cannot be any happiness within this material world.
(More...) Imported quote 16804 Unless we have got spiritual understanding, we'll have to present ourself with this bodily designation. This is designation. "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am Christian," "I am Bengali," "I am Sindhi," "I am Punjabi," "I am American," these are all bodily conception of life. And so long we are in the bodily concepts of our life, we are no better than the animals, cats and dogs. That is the statement of Vedic literature.
(More...) Go means cow, and kharaḥ means asses. So yasya atma-buddhiḥ: "A person who thinks himself atma-buddhiḥ, as 'I am this body...' " Yasyatma-buddhiḥ kunape tri-dhatuke. This body is made of tri-dhatu, three dhatus: kapha, pitta, vayu. "So this kapha, pitta, vayu, this body, I am not this body." This is self-realization. "I am different from this bag of flesh and bone." When we realize completely, that is the first point of self-realization.
(More...) In the Second Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita Krsna has begun the philosophy of Bhagavad-gita from this point, that "I am not this body." This is the beginning of spiritual knowledge. So long we are entrapped with the bodily concept of life, there is no question of spiritual life. That is the beginning. What is that? Dehino 'smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara, tatha dehantara-praptiḥ [Bg 2.13].
(More...) So dehi... Just like we change from one place to another, from one apartment to another. That you have got experience. Similarly, in the material condition of life we, the proprietor of the body, we are changing, tatha dehantara-praptiḥ, from one body to another. This is the first knowledge, preliminary knowledge. People have no preliminary knowledge even. Everyone is thinking, "I am this body": "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am brahmana," "I am ksatriya." It is not this body I am. I am put into this body under certain circumstances. Otherwise I am not this body.
(More...) Imported quote 17089 Dehinaḥ. I am dehi. Dehi. This is..., body is deha, body. But I am not this body. You think over. If you take this finger, you study, am I this finger? No, the conclusion will come: "It is my finger, not 'I finger.' " Simply little knowledge required. How? Now, Krsna gives this example, that dehinaḥ, asmin dehe yatha dehinaḥ kaumaram yauvanam jara. He has explained in different ways, but the beginning is this, that this body is changing. You had a small body, baby's body. Where is that body? If I say, "Where is that body?" what you will answer? But you know that "I had a small body." I know. Everyone will know. But where is that body? That body is not existing. I was also young man like you, but now I am an old man. Old man means my body is different-old body. Your body is different. So Krsna giving this very nice example: As the baby is changed into a boy, a boy is changed into a youth, a youth is changed into old man, so this changing is going on. But I or you, we know that "I had such body."
(More...) Imported quote 17115 First of all, abhayam. Abhayam means we are always afraid. We are always agitated, anxiety, because I am thinking, "I am this body." But if you are completely realized that you are not this body, you are something else, spirit soul, then I am immediately free from anxieties. That is called abhayam-no more fear, no more anxiety. Because everyone is ultimately afraid of being killed. But if he understands fully that he is not this body, then killed or not killed, he is not any attached to this body. Narottama dasa Thakura says, therefore, deha smrti nahi jar, samsara bandhan kaha tar[?]: "If one becomes free from the bodily concept of life, then where is material miseries?" Material miseries does not affect him. He know that... Just like I am putting on this shirt. If it is torn, so am I affected? I am not affected. I am within this shirt. Similarly, if I am fully convinced that I am not this body, then if there is some injury or some disease or some mishap in the body, I am not concerned because I know that I am not this body. That is self-realization.
(More...) Imported quote 17292 We have discussed very elaborately. Anyone who has got intelligence, he can understand that "I am not this body. Within this body there is a living force, and without that living force the body is useless, lump of matter. That's all. So long the spirit soul is there, I am Mr. Such-and-such, I am Mr. this, I am Mr. that." [child coughing] [aside:] So this child should be... But as soon as the spirit soul is away, that Mr. lying on the floor, if somebody kicks on his face, he does not protest. Mr. finished. But the fools still take care of that bodily Mr., not the soul Mr. Without the soul, it is nothing but a lump of matter.
(More...) Imported quote 18126 So if we actually want to be free from the bondage of material existence... Bhūtva bhūtva praliyate [Bg 8.19]. A common sense. Because we have lost our common sense. Suppose we are sitting here. If somebody says, "Now get out! Sit down he... Sit down here." And again, a half an hour, if he says, "No, no, come here." So shall I like it? "No, I am not sitting here. I'll go." Similarly, here the life is, the materialistic way of life, means bhūtva bhūtva praliyate [Bg 8.19]. You accept one body; you'll not be allowed to remain in that body permanently. You must have to give it up. Again accept another body. Again you have to give it up. What is this business? But they are so rascal, they do not know that how much miserable condition we are in. We are simply accepting one body and again... Bhūtva bhūtva praliyate. Tyaktva deham. We are... We do not know that "I am not this body."
(More...) Imported quote 19300 "First of all try to understand what you are." That is the beginning of Bhagavad-gita. It is no politics. It is knowledge, pure knowledge. Bhagavad-gita is pure knowledge. The politicians take advantage of it. The sociologists, the so-called svamis, yogis, they take advantage of it and try to prove their all nonsensical theories. But it is not at all Bhagavad-gita. Bhagavad-gita as it is is pure knowledge, beginning with the first knowledge one has to understand, that he is not this body. Because this is the basic principle of all ignorance: "I am this body." "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am brahmana," "I am this," "I am that"-this is the basic principle. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also says the same thing in a different way. He says, "I am not a brahmana, I am not a ksatriya, I am not a vaisya, I am not a sūdra, I am not a brahmacari, I am not a grhastha, I am not a vanaprastha, I am not a sannyasi." These are negation. Then what is the positive? He says, gopi-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasaḥ [Cc Madhya 13.80]:
(More...) Imported quote 20947 If your husband, Syamasundara is not even keeping correspondence with you how can we know what is his position. Please try to advise him to return the money he owes as soon as possible. Chant 16 rounds, follow all of our regulative principles then everything will be alright in a very short time. I am hoping he will do like this. So you please continue your devotional service, cooking etc, and you can also keep giving Bhagavatam class if you like. Women in our movement can also preach very nicely. Actually male and female bodies, these are just outward designations. Lord Caitanya said that whether one is brahmana or whatever he may be if he knows the science of Krsna then he is to be accepted as guru. So one who gives class, he must read and study regularly and study the purport and realize it. Don't add anything or concoct anything, then he can preach very nicely. The qualification for leading class is how much one understands about Krsna and surrendering to the process. Not whether one is male or female. Of course women, generally speaking are less intelligent, better she has heard nicely then she will speak nicely. I hope this meets you in good health. Imported quote 21096 Please accept my greetings. I am in due reciept of your letter dated Jan. 6th, 1975 and have noted the contents. Thank you for your donation of 20 dollars. We are Vaisnavas. We are not concerned with male or female position in life. That is simply bodily concept of life. It is not spiritual. Whether one is male or female, it doesn't matter, simply chant Hare Krishna and follow the four regulative principles and your life will be perfect.
(More...) Imported quote 21430 Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated November 17, 1975. I am very pleased to note that you are attempting to preach seriously in the schools and colleges. Prahlada Maharaja, a great devotee and authority in our line said, Krishna consciousness should be taught from the beginning of Childhood. The defect of modern education is that the children are taught all nonsense things. They do not receive even the first point of knowledge, that I am pure spirit soul part and parcel of God. Everyone is interested in the body only, which is compared in Bhagavad gita to a dress, "As a person puts on new garments, giving up the old and useless ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.'' [Bg 2.22] this simple fact they have yet to learn. So if you can teach them just this one point it will be a great success, because this is the basic platform of advancing in spiritual understanding. If we want to read and write, then it is essential to learn first of all A, B, C's.
(More...) Whatever knowledge they have got now is on the platform of this body, which is a lump of matter only, there is no knowledge of the soul which is entrapped within the lump of matter, and so people are suffering because of ignorance of this simple point. So try to enlighten them on this point and make them happy, that will please me and krishna, and thus you will become perfect yourself.
(More...) Imported quote 21607 The spirit soul is equal in either a man or woman. One who is actually engaged in the service of Krishna, there is no such distinction as man or woman. In the Bhagavad-gita, 6th Chapter, 1st Verse it is stated anasritah karma-phalam karijam karma karoti yah/ sa sannyasi ca yogi ca na niragnir na cakriyah [Bg 6.1]. Anyone acting for Krishna, he is a sannyasi or sannyasini. It is also stated: striyo vaisyas tatha sudras te'pi yanti param gatim. So spiritually everyone is equal. But materially a woman cannot be given Sannyasa. But you should not be bothered because you are serving on the spiritual platform. I hope this meets you well. Imported quote 21678 With reference to your statement that you are concerned with this life alone, I could not follow what you mean by this. In this life also, you take care of educating your children. So if the child is not educated for the next stage of life, then how do you account for the child's youth-hood age. Life is a continuation. The baby grows to become a child, the child grows to become a boy, the boy grows to become a young man, the young man becomes a middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man becomes an old man. So with which stage of life are you concerned? I shall be glad to know in which stage of life you are interested. If you don't take care of the child and simply become concerned with the young man, is it possible to act properly in the matter of humanitarianism? And according to the transmigration of the soul, a man can become a dog in the next life. So you take care of this life, and if in the next life he becomes a dog, then what?
(More...) Imported quote 24254 Unfortunately, at the present moment people do not know that there is soul and the soul transmigrates from one body to another. As it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, tatha dehantaram praptir dhiras tatra na muhyati [Bg 2.13]. Big, big professors... I've talked with big, big scientists, professors, but they do not know that there is life after death. They do not know. But according to our Vedic information, we know.
(More...) So we are experiencing in our this life. It is taking change so swiftly that we cannot understand how the body is changing, but it is changing. So similarly, this body will change, tatha dehantara-praptiḥ. And we have to change that body after death according to my mental condition, because we have got two bodies, the subtle body and the gross body. This gross body is finished; it is no more working. Just like at night the gross body does not work. We are thinking, "I am sleeping." Sleeping means the body is so much tired, it is no more working. But your another body, which is made of mind, intelligence and ego-subtle body-that is working. Everyone has got this experience. The subtle body takes you to another place or another condition. You are dreaming that you have gone to the jungle. You are meeting some animals. The tiger is there coming to attack you, and you are crying, "Here is tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" And the man who is not dreaming, he says, "Where is tiger? Why you are crying?" But he's actually... The result is there. Don't think that the result is not there. In dream you are thinking your lover is there, you are embracing, and you get discharge, not that that you are not working and it is not..., there is no result. There is result. I cannot see what is the result, what you are dreaming. I am fool. I do not know. But the man who is dreaming, he is experiencing.
(More...) In the materialistic conception, modern civilization makes enormous arrangements for huge roads, houses, mills and factories, and this is man's conception of the advancement of civilization. People do not know, however, that at any time they themselves ma The purport is that as long as we are in this human form of body, our duty is to understand the soul within the body. The body is not the self; we are different from the body, and therefore there is no question of friends, enemies or responsibilities in terms of the bodily conception of life. One should not be very anxious about the body's changing from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to old age and then to apparent annihilation. Rather, one should be very seriously concerned about the soul within the body and how to release the soul from the material clutches. The living entity within the body is never annihilated; therefore one should surely know that whether one has many friends or many enemies, his friends cannot help him, and his enemies cannot do him any harm. One should know that he is a spirit soul (aham brahmasmi) and that the constitutional position of the soul is unaffected by the changes of the body. In all circumstances, everyone, as a spirit soul, must be a devotee of Lord Visnu and should not be concerned with bodily relationships, whether with friends or with enemies. One should know that neither we ourselves nor our enemies in the bodily conception of life are ever killed.
(More...) Just as a householder, although different from the identity of his house, thinks his house to be identical with him, so the conditioned soul, due to ignorance, accepts the body to be himself, although the body is actually different from the soul. Just as a householder, although different from the identity of his house, thinks his house to be identical with him, so the conditioned soul, due to ignorance, accepts the body to be himself, although the body is actually different from the soul. This body is obtained through a combination of portions of earth, water and fire, and when the earth, water and fire are transformed in the course of time, the body is vanquished. The soul has nothing to do with this creation and dissolution of the body.
(More...) We transmigrate from one body to another in bodies that are products of our illusion, but as spirit souls we always exist separately from material, conditional life. The example given here is that a house or car is always different from its owner, but because of attachment the conditioned soul thinks it to be identical with him. A car or house is actually made of material elements; as long as the material elements combine together properly, the car or house exists, and when they are disassembled the house or the car is disassembled. The spirit soul, however, always remains as he is.
(More...) the duty of those advanced in knowledge in human society is to study the constitutional position of the imperishable soul and not waste the valuable time of human life in merely maintaining the body and not considering life's real responsibility. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (2.18). Antavanta ime deha nityasyoktaḥ saririnaḥ: the body is perishable, but the soul within the body is imperishable. Therefore the duty of those advanced in knowledge in human society is to study the constitutional position of the imperishable soul and not waste the valuable time of human life in merely maintaining the body and not considering life's real responsibility. Every human being should try to understand how the spirit soul can be happy and where he can attain an eternal, blissful life of knowledge. Human beings are meant to study these subject matters, not to be absorbed in caring for the temporary body, which is sure to change. No one knows whether he will receive a human body again; there is no guarantee, for according to one's work one may get any body, from that of a demigod to that of a dog. In this regard, Srila Madhvacarya comments:
(More...) Only Janardana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is ever existing, but His creation, the material world, is temporary. Therefore everyone who is captivated by the material energy and absorbed in thinking "I am this body, and everything belonging to this body is mine" is in illusion. One should think only of being eternally a part of Janardana, and one's endeavor in this material world, especially in this human form of life, should be to attain the association of Janardana by going back home, back to Godhead.
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